Speaking of CB&Q river bridges, as my Christmas present to myself I picked up "The Lost Panoramas", a book of photos taken by the Chicago Sanitary District during the construction of the sanitary canal, as well as downstream afterwards often in conjunction with lawsuits by various towns and people who were less than thrilled with Chicago gifting them with a river full of sewage. One of the panoramas is a 1911 view of the north end of the Q bridge over the Illinois River at Morris. Unfortunately the lift span is out of sight stage left, but the view is interesting in that there are at least three approach spans (there are only two now) and the river front is basically a huge empty flood plane rather than all built up like it is nowadays. According to the caption the bridge was built in 1898 and rebuilt in 1932 with a new lift span due to increased river traffic. Here's a link to a modern day view: http://www.johnweeks.com/river_illinois/pages/illC06.html
There's only a couple railroad shots in the book, but still it's a pretty cool view of a massive and controversial even in its time engineering project.
Thank you kindly,
Michael Matalis Downers Grove IL
On Dec 25, 2011, at 9:29 AM, Dave Lotz wrote: Hi All, A week or so ago, Bill Ewinger sent me some images that Gary Seifken had sent him. They are photos of a remaining portion of the ORIGINAL 1868 CB&Q Mississippi River bridge at Burlington!!! It is said to have been floated upriver, shortened, and placed in its current position in 1891. I’ve compared it to the images I have of the original bridge and it is a match. Here is the link for all to view: http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesB/umissBR14.html Dave
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